About 40 Fifty-Third Street Elementary students with special needs took a field trip to a greenhouse using virtual reality headsets.
The entire event was hosted by Bright Farms and Pick-N-Save in the school's library. There were three different stations where students could plant lettuce for the greenhouse, play corn hole for team building, and wear the VR headpieces.
Eleven-year veteran Special Education Teacher Erick McGinley knows field trips for some students can be taxing. There's the added stress of a new and unfamiliar environment could cause additional problems, so having their field trip come to them makes everything a little easier.
The students seem to still connect cognitively in the same way as if this were a physical field trip. They're having fun and able to feel comfortable in a familiar environment. Both students and staff say they'd like to do something like this again in the future.
